


Fire Lizards and Flirting

by wherethewordsare



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bad Flirting, Ecologist!Geralt, Great Dane Roach, Hope you enjoy, M/M, Meet-Cute, One Shot, She a big overly friendly girl, To a point, actual science, but it's in passing, just self indulgent nonsense, teacher!Jaskier, this honestly was just for shits and giggles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:55:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27026935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wherethewordsare/pseuds/wherethewordsare
Summary: Out on an ecological survey, Geralt has to fish a handsome stranger with a lute of all things out of the river. Roach is a big goofy Great Dane and responsible for the need to fish the guy out.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion
Comments: 14
Kudos: 208





	Fire Lizards and Flirting

Geralt preferred the fieldwork to the lab work. He hated sitting there, plugging numbers into the sheets, having to answer emails, and dealing with the office supervisors. So when the chance to do the ecological survey along a particular stretch of the Appalachian came up, he moved heaven and earth, and four reams worth of documents to get the assignment. 

He and Roach had pulled into the empty lot at the head of the trail, early that morning. Roach gave a soft “boof” as she knew what came next. 

“I know, I know. I’m moving as fast as I can.” Two giant paws pressed against his shoulder followed by another boof as Roach’s whole body seemed to vibrate. “You don’t think I’m excited too, huh?” Geralt rolled his eyes as he climbed out of his truck, moving just in time as Roach leaped the center console and bounded out the door. 

Geralt let the huge dog make her little circles around the truck, her whole back end wagging as she did. This. This was exactly why he preferred fieldwork to being in the lab. He answered to no one but an overly affectionate Great Dane. 

The trail was easy enough, sloping down towards the river with lazy winding cutbacks. He made note of the small rivulets that cut down the side of the hill and stopped a few times to check out the rot in logs, taking samples when he remembered to. He was nearly to the river, the sound of water over rocks steadily growing louder when he realized that it wasn’t the only sound. 

He called Roach to him, having her walk closer as they made their way down to the bank. Geralt had seen some pretty strange things in his years of ecological study, but the man standing in the center of the river with what Geralt would bet good money on was a lute, strumming softly was something he still wasn’t sure he was seeing. 

Roach saw him too though. Giving an excited bark, she took off, splashing into the water. The man that had been standing on a smooth rock turned quickly in surprise; too quickly. Geralt watched as he lost his footing, tumbling down into the water, Roach bounding after him happily.

“Shit, fuck, damn, fuck! ROACH!” Geralt was dropping his pack and peeling out of his overshirt as he ran in after the dog and the man who had fallen. He was sitting up now, the water was shallow in this stretch, pushing a soaking mop of hair out of his eyes, spluttering as Roach attempted to climb into his lap. 

“No no no… Oh no, I am so sorry. She is… harmless! But… very… Roach, down! Very friendly. Far too friendly.” Geralt tried to wrestle the dog away from the sopping musician who, in the struggle, slipped back into the water, coming up coughing.

Not coughing. Laughing. Hard, his head tilted back as he looked up at Geralt, striking blue eyes blinking away river water. “Sir… I believe you’ve lost control of your horse.” 

“Uh... Great Dane, but close enough.” 

On cue, Roach gave a happy boof and sat on the rock that she had just knocked the man from. 

“Proud of yourself, are you?” Geralt grumbled affectionately. “Please excuse her. She was raised by wolves.” He offered down a hand and tried not to get completely lost in those eyes. 

The man took his hand and let himself be pulled up from the water, giving his head a shake. “That’s okay. No better cure for the blues than a lap horse in the middle of nowhere followed by a tall handsome stranger.” He flashed Geralt a smile that was competing with the sun to be the brightest thing lighting up the riverbed. “Did you call her Roach?” The man tilted his head as he shook the water from his lute. 

“It’s a fish.” Geralt said flatly, scowling. 

“Jaskier.” The man, Jaskier, held out his hand chuckling softly. “That sweet girl is an absolute queen and you named her after a fish.” Jaskier was having a go at him but there wasn’t anything unkind about it. 

Taking his hand, Geralt raised an eyebrow. “Geralt. Well, she swims much better than some musicians I’ve seen. I think it’s apt.” He had to bite the inside of his lip to stop from grinning wide at Jaskier’s overly dramatic noises of shock. 

“I will have you know, I am a fine swimmer when I haven’t been snuck up on.” Jaskier puffed his chest up but the effect was immediately ruined when his teeth began to chatter. 

“Shit. Let’s get you dry.” 

Geralt helped Jaskier to shore, carrying his lute and reaching into his backpack for the absorbent towel he always carried for when Roach got into the water. She would have to drip dry this time. There was a stretch of open grass along the bank and Geralt decided it was as good as any place to stop for lunch. 

“Why are you out in the middle of a river with an actual lute? I haven’t seen one of these since college.” He handed the towel and the lute to Jaskier who began to work the towel over the soundboard with practiced fingers. 

“Well if you must know,” he seemed to wince. “Getting over a bit of heartbreak.” Geralt’s face must have done something because Jaskier just shook his head, huffing. “Oh, nothing like that. There was a competition and I was robbed, is all.” He scowled at nothing in particular before giving a put upon sigh. “Honestly, there is no accounting for tastes these days.”

Geralt bit down on the inside of his lip again, looking away to hide the amused raise of his eyebrows. “Well from what I heard before Roach took you out, you sounded great.” He looked down just in time to see the dark tail retreat under a flat rock by their feet. “Would you care to meet a Desmognathus ochrophaeus?” he reached down, one hand cupped as the other lifted the rock. 

“I… bless you?” Jaskier tilted his head, confused. 

“Or the Allegheny Mountain dusky salamander. It’s why I’m out here.” Geralt gave him a small smile as he opened his hand, revealing a sleek little body with beady little eyes. “I’m surveying indicator species in the area and picking up some water samples.” he held up the wriggling salamander gently between his fingers, turning it this way and that as he checked for signs of sickness while holding it up for Jaskier to see. 

As he held it up, it turned its head, biting down onto Geralt’s thumb. “Ah, shit.” Geralt laughed as he pulled a notebook out. “Got a fighter on our hands. That’s a good sign too.” He knew he was doing that thing Eskel was always getting on him about with the critters. Roach laid out next to him, her tail thumping heavily on the ground as she huffed. 

Jaskier was looking at him with his head tilted and his eyes soft. “And why is that?” Geralt was used to people mocking him for his enthusiasm for this job. There were very few things he found himself able to really talk about admittedly. But there was nothing but curiosity and a fondness that had Geralt suddenly a little self-conscience. 

“Well most of these are common as crickets,” Geralt indicated the salamander with a tilt of his hand before releasing him back into the grass, “so they’re usually easy to find if you know where to look and if they’re healthy, then the river usually is too.” 

“So you just walk around the woods all day with your horse-dog, cooing at fire-lizards and knocking poor unexpecting gentlemen into rivers. For science?” Ah, there was the teasing. Geralt found he didn’t mind it terribly.

“Amphibians. I’m not sure why they’re called fire-lizards. They’re neither made of fire nor are they lizards.” Geralt went digging into his pack, fishing out a couple of apples. He turned to find Jaskier pulling his shirt over his head and he nearly dropped them on the ground. 

There was something about the line of his shoulder that made Geralt want to throw himself into the river. 

“They sleep in logs,” Jaskier said, wringing out his shirt. He gave a small shiver and tilted himself so the sun fell across his back. 

“I… what?” Geralt knew he sounded distracted. He was distracted. 

“Back in the days before central heating, in the winter people would bring in firewood. The salamanders would be asleep in them and wake up from their winter naps to find their little hiding places on fire. What would you do?” Jaskier laid his shirt over the log between them, reaching down to tug off his sneakers. “So all they would see were these little lizards appearing from the flames and running around. It just kind of stuck, I guess.” He was twisting his socks up when he looked over at Geralt. “What?”

“I… who are you again? I find you, in the middle of nowhere, there’s no other car in the parking lot, in the river, with a lute…” In the back of his mind, Geralt remembered the old stories about Fae his father would tell him and his brothers. 

“Well, if you must know,” Jaskier turned to him fully, smiling. “My mother and only my mother calls me Julian. My friends call me Jaskier, and my students call me Mr. Pankratz.” He squinted up the path that Geralt had come from and hummed. “You took A lot. There’s a second parking lot from over there,” he pointed down the bank on the other end to where Geralt could see the start of a cleared path. So, promise, not a witch or ghost or what have you.” The teasing was back and it went along with the kind of smile Geralt could get used to. 

Fuck. Might as well…

“And… What do your dates usually call you?” he was busying himself with rummaging for a water bottle. 

Jaskier laughed, his grin growing wide. “Why don’t you ask me and find out.”


End file.
